Her self-deprecating, somewhat phony Southern-belle routine might not be the most effective means to reach brusque, subway-riding broads.

THE lady Liddy blazed through the room in a suit of blinding turquoise silk – as visually out of place in Manhattan as a child-safety lock at a National Rifle Association meeting.

Liddy Dole, the gal who would be president, hit the steely, Hillary-friendly shores of this city yesterday to accept something called a “One Smart Lady” award.

One Smart Cookie was all I could think.

Still dewy at 62, her speech punctuated with such phrases as “Oh, my!” and “God bless you!” the Republican darling plays in New York like a 45 record on a compact-disc player.

That is, she’s humming the right tune to appeal to this city’s legion of social-policy liberals. But her self-deprecating, somewhat phony Southern-belle routine might not be the most effective means to reach brusque, subway-riding broads.

As always, Liddy Dole’s timing was impeccable, if her style was badly in need of tuning. So controlled is Liddy, she seems to consult her notes when making small talk. She was smart enough to hit Gotham on the heels of a weekend in which she broke ranks with the Republican right by – gasp! – endorsing gun control.

“You don’t need an AK-47 to defend your family,” she said at a GOP candidates’ forum in New Hampshire.

But rather than building on her bid to become her party’s moderate voice, Dole’s debut here had the frothy feel of a coming-out ball.

As if in passing, Dole mentioned her support for mobilizing ground troops for battle in Kosovo. But Dole, who served in the Cabinets of two presidential administrations, squandered much of her speech on a long, pointless story about her first case as a Washington girl lawyer, defending some guy who wandered into a lion’s cage.

It was a metaphor for something. But the meaning got lost on the ears of successful women who dominated the audience, most of whom didn’t require a lecture on ancient indignities endured by females.

“My mother asked me, ‘Don’t you want to be a wife, and a mother, and a hostess for your husband?'” Dole said about her decision to attend Harvard Law School.

“Later that night, I was awakened by the sounds of distress coming from the bathroom,” she continued. “Mother had lost her dinner.”

So much for my lunch.

It seems Liddy Dole wants to appear unthreatening. To exude accessibility. But yesterday, her personal space was fiercely guarded by her all-girl entourage, lest we savage reporters trick her into actually saying something new.

During a two-minute Q&A granted journalists, Liddy was asked her opinion of the woman I think of as Monica Lewinsky’s ex-boyfriend’s wife.

“I respect her!” Liddy chirped reflexively about Hillary Clinton.

Even in her printed speech, copies of which were distributed to the media, Dole peppers her remarks with exclamation points.

To no particular question, Liddy continued, “If I run [for president] it’s not because I’m a woman. I will not ask anyone to vote for me because I’m a woman.

“It’s because I have a record.”

Then, like a chick rock star of a certain age, Liddy was whisked into an elevator and out of range.

Pity. It would have been fun to have the opportunity to ask such probing questions as:

“So, what are your views on the international trade imbalance?” Or,

“Aren’t you proud of your husband for bringing the subject of ‘erectile dysfunction’ into the American living room?”

Liddy Dole is one smart cookie. If she wants to cut it in this town, she should cut the li’l lady crap, and prove it.